Armed Forces Day: Meet Chris

Before joining Vodafone, I spent nearly 9 years in the British Army (42 Engineer Regiment (Geographic)) as a GIS analyst, where I delivered geospatial intelligence in some of the most demanding environments. My time in the military helped to develop my organisational and leadership skills, along with the technical skills to perform complex GIS analysis to aid military leaders to make informed decisions in the battlespace.

Vodafone is one of the world’s largest Telcos yet it is local to where I live in Newbury, so this was an exciting opportunity to test and develop my skills in a completely new industry and environment – they have definitely been tested so far! From the outside in, it looked like Vodafone had a great culture, which quickly become evident it has from my short time working in the company.

The onboarding process was good, I received a lot of briefs on various tools and training to ensure that I was brought up to speed quickly and efficiently. I received in house training and constant support from my peers to help me settle into the role, along with a huge amount of support from my line manager.

It hasn't all been easy though. In the military I was in the office full time and constantly surrounded by people. In my new role at Vodafone my team is split across countries and only requires me to be in the office a few days a week due to the hybrid working model. This has sometimes been challenging on a social level and bedding into the role. This should be taken into consideration when looking for remote roles when leaving the military as it may not be for everyone, but if you'd like the flexibility to work from home and in the office, then you should consider joining Vodafone.